Who Taught Wyatt How to Write?

Peter and Margaret had heard that children in Montessori schools were precocious learners. Their neighbor’s five-year old daughter, Jenny, began to read and write while she attended the local Montessori school. They didn’t know much about the method, but when the time came to enroll their three-year-old son Wyatt in a pre-school, they decided to give Montessori a chance.

To their dismay, Wyatt didn’t seem to do anything academic during his first year of Montessori, but he sure was active! He washed tables, sewed on cardboard, polished silver, traced and made drawings of geometric shapes, looked at picture cards, built a pink tower, stroked boards with sandpaper, and lifted little cylinders by their tiny knobs.

During Parent’s Night, Peter and Margaret visited Wyatt’s classroom and found his ability to trace the sandpaper letters quite adorable. He also showed them how he formed words like cat and flag with large plastic letters on a rug. All this was charming, but they wondered how he would go from these activities to writing phrases, like their young neighbor Jenny was doing, without first practicing with pencil and paper. After all, not once during that first year had Wyatt’s teacher exposed him to a workbook, a #2 pencil, or lined paper!

The boy’s parents were nervous; many of the non-Montessori parents in their playgroup spent several hours each week engaged in workbook activities with their young children, showing them how to connect dots and color large letters. Peter and Margaret wondered if they should do the same.

Wyatt’s teacher, however, asked them to refrain from offering academic work at home, assuring them that the boy was engaged in several purposeful activities in the classroom that would eventually lead him to write and then read. She encouraged them to involve Wyatt in hands-on activities at home; share fun experiences in nature; and help him build his vocabulary through conversations, poems, and stories about the real world.

One day, when Wyatt was about four-and-a-half years old, the family was having dinner at a restaurant. With a pencil he was using for coloring, Wyatt carefully wrote his name in cursive on the paper placemat. Oblivious to his parents’ surprised expressions, he went on to write in cursive the things he saw around him: fork, dish, napkin, and plant. From then on, he wanted to write words all day long!

His parents were thrilled, but full of questions for his teacher. How was it possible for Wyatt to develop this difficult skill if he never used workbooks or connected dots to learn the shapes of letters? How was he able to hold the pencil so confidently and with so much control, when youngsters normally press the pencil so hard onto the paper that they tear it? And above all, how could he enjoy the activity so much when most children have to be forced to practice their writing skills?

The answers to all their questions can be found in the seemingly unrelated work Wyatt did during his first year in the classroom. His arm and wrist gained strength as he scrubbed tables and squeezed sponges. He gained mastery over his fingers as he carefully pushed a needle through a piece of cardboard. He learned how to control a writing instrument by applying polish with a cotton-tipped stick. By holding little knobs with three fingers he learned how to grip a pencil. He gained fluidity of wrist movement by tracing shapes. Lightness of touch was obtained by stroking different grades of sandpaper, and he expanded his vocabulary by learning the names associated with beautiful pictures of trees, birds, fruits, and insects.

When Wyatt understood the concept of writing – that letters representing sounds are put together to form words – his hand was ready and willing to help him express his thoughts on paper!

This entire process – what we call indirect preparation for writing – was thoroughly enjoyable for Wyatt because all of the activities he was engaged in fed his psychological needs. In other words, the work he did in the Montessori classroom responded to the internal drives all young children have to learn through movement, to explore their language, and to experience the world through their senses. When a child’s education is designed with these sensitivities in mind, learning is easy and pleasurable.

By satisfying his present needs, Wyatt’s teacher guided him towards the fulfillment of a seemingly unrelated future goal (writing). This indirect approach to education is a thread that is woven throughout the Montessori curriculum, from the early years of Children’s House (pre-school) through the advanced work of Upper Elementary and beyond. The feeling of satisfaction and self-fulfillment it gives the children is priceless.

Wyatt can confirm this. I recently asked him: “Wyatt, who taught you how to write?” He happily replied: “Nobody taught me. I taught myself!” And the truth is, he did.

About Pilar Bewley

Pilar Bewley holds AMI Primary (San Diego, CA) and Elementary (Bergamo, Italy) diplomas, as well as a M.Ed. in Montessori Education from Loyola College. She lives with her husband and baby boy in San Diego and writes about motherhood and Montessori on her blog, The Full Monte(ssori).

Reader Interactions

Comments

What a lovely article! It is sometimes hard to articulate to parents that the value of the work in a Montessori classroom can be seen on several levels and that it all serves as preparation for other, more complex, tasks.

I love this article. Is there a way that I could have a copy of it to show some reluctant parents who are going through the same experience as stated in the article about “shouldn’t they be doing something more?”

I’m going to pass this along to my son’s teacher, who is running an eclectic mini-school (just 5 kids). It’s not Montessori, but she’s open to any good ideas, and I think she’ll love thinking about this.

Wonderful post. Although my daughter has started reading this post reminds me to be patient and trust in her school. I think sometimes it is hard for parents who have been so involved up until the child goes to preschool to take such a step back and not know what the child is doing while they are there.
I have noticed so many positive changes in my daughter just in the three short months she’s been attending a Montessori school.

What an interesting article. I remember visiting a montessori school during my undergrade years. I now teach 4 year old kindergarten and feel like I am constanly seeking out and creating hands-on ways of learning… while reading this article I just kept finding myself wishing that I could have the opportunity to teach in a Montessori school and also have my daughter attend a Montessori school when the time comes for her to start. Is there a special degree required to teach Montessori?

As a Montessori parent and a Montessori primary teacher this story brought tears to my eyes. I tell parents and have even reminded myself throughout the years that having that initial faith in the Montessori philosophy will pay off as seen in Wyatt’s story. Wyatt’s story is identical to my own children’s Montessori education and the children in my classroom. It’s a very rewarding profession. Thanks for sharing this article.

This article has given me a lot of hope as my son is 2.9 months old and refuses to learn how to write. He refuses to hold the pen the proper way. Doesn’t like to connect dots or do coloring. I know he can learn these things through other methods. Unfortunately, there’s no real montessouri nursery or school here in Egypt. There are a few schools that claim to be but not accredited. I read a lot about this system and wish from my heart that one day I’d be able to establish my own montessouri school in Egypt.

I have a story that mirrors the experience of Wyatt and his parents. My son attends a Montessori school in Auckland. He was approaching his fifth birthday and my husband and I were worried that he had NEVER shown ANY interest in drawing or writing. Not only had he not shown any interest, when we or his teachers tried to introduce the idea of using a pencil, or even chalk, he would flatly refuse and even get upset and cause a scene. We were concerned as we had seen his peers master the art of writing sentences and drawing quite intricate drawings. One day after school I asked his teacher if we should think about taking him to a physical therapist. She took me by the arm and said, “Be patient, it will come”. When I told my husband this, he wasn’t convinced but held out on the intervention “until his fifth birthday”. Well! Like a light had been switched on, one day soon after his fifth birthday, our son sat at the dining room table and wrote a whole story about his new friend at school and drew a very sophisticated and complex drawing of an alien in a spaceship landing on earth. From nothing to everything in one precious and enlightening moment. We were stunned, thrilled and dumbfounded. His teacher was right. We showed patience and it came. It came in a flood of pictures, words and stories. I am a Montessori devotee through and through.

I’m a Montessori parent in Luján, Argentina and I´ve found this article marvelous. The method is quite unknown in our country and it will be very useful to share it with impatient parents in my community. Thanks.

This message is particularly addressed to RANIA HASSAN, Egypt. I am a fervent believer in Montessori. I am a Montessori trained teacher and also a British trained primary teacher. I am currently teaching in an international school in Cairo…I meet a lot of great parents who are prepared to sacrifice everything in their life for their children’s education and future. Unfortunately, some private schools are purely money orientated businesses with no real passion or, at least interest in children as individuals. I see those poor parents being easily misslead by unprofessional and underqualified teachers and managers… and there is so much I want to tell them… I am also thinking of establishing and promoting the montessori method in Egypt…

Would it be possible for our school to use your article in our handout materials for adults? This beautiful story perfectly depicts the effectiveness of the Montessori philosophy. It would be a most helpful educational tool.

Hello Pilar,
First off, this is a great article, Having attended Montessori from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, I always find myself trying to describe how ‘it works’ to others. This is a perfect example of the kind of educational piece that insecure parents always seem to need when their child isn’t being graded, or tested all the time.
I have been considering attending the AMI Training in Bergamo and I’ve been looking for someone actively taking the training to ask questions about the course. Would it be possible to email you some questions I have about the program?

My youngest went to a Montessori School from the age of 3 through the 6th grade. In kindergarten she was having trouble with vowels sounds and her teacher sent home books with short vowel sounds that we could read to her at night. We did this with no noticeable success but she continued to work every day in school. The Montessori School she went to gave one test a year, an achievement test. At the end of the first grade her reading tested out at the high school level. She taught herself to read when we weren’t looking! Then of course there was the challenge of finding appropriate books for her to read that did not have R rated material in them. Her base of knowledge led her to make an 800 on her English SAT test, a 787 on her writing SAT and a 637 on her math SAT. I am so glad she got to experience learning by doing and learning at her own rate. Oh yeah, they also have PE, Art, Music and foreign languages. They have cut most of that out of our school systems so they can give more tests.

I am a preschool teacher and I have been teaching for 12 years: 6 months in Indonesian preschool with traditional way of teaching, 9 years in Chinese school (in Indonesia) and 2,5 years in Australian Internatinal School (also in Indonesia).

Three months ago I decided to stay in Jakarta and started to take a Diploma of Montessori Education. Now I can say, the more I learn this method the more I’m impressed with this method. Maria Montessori was very jenius. Created this education method very details through purposeful activities in nurturing, supporting & prepared environment.

I still need some next months to finish my diploma. Everything in this method is wonderful; I feel sorry that I just started learn about this. I feel that actually I could teach my children (students) in much much better way with Montessori method.

What I can do right now is to encourage the parents and teachers to educated their children or students with this method.